On Animal Intellegence...

[Flavious]

I was wondering recently: what is the current method in which most people determine an specie's overall "intellegence"? Shouldn't it be the capacity to think, learn and / or reason? (Though the later option may be impossible for nonhumans, of course).

Many animals ranked high in intellegence don't fit all the above criteria, however, for example, the dolphins are intellegent in the sense that they have a large cerebellum/cerebrum, and rats are always associated with intellegence due to their capacity to learn and adapt to a situation yet have comparitivly smaller brains.

[mith]

I think they are also measured on a brain-mass to body mass ratio too, although you're right in that measuring intelligence is finicky.

[Darby]

There don't seem to be any real standards, but the decent studies at least make clear what their internal criteria are.

[Dr.Stein]

I read somewhere that intelligence includes: the learning process i.e. memorizing, trial and error, self-experience, idea and how to think, how an individual respond to their environment, etc.

[sachin]

There a little differance between "Thinking abillity" & "situational habits"

Situational habits are "Introduced or triggered intellegence" in case of rats.

Dolphins have abillity to analyse things but rat do not.

rat are just like parratos they learn what they need to get food, shelter, Mate... They always keep learning new simple but effective ways of above things. But they never analyse it.

SUPPOSE

If you teach a rat how to solve 1+4=5, and 4+1=5 and you give them a
proble 2+3=?. They will try all methods they have learned and finally come with nothing. since they do not learned how to solve it.

But Dolphin will never try privious once, it will suddenlly come to know that it is a new problem, that still to learn. It will try to learn that.

Simply way of use of intellegence matters. ofcourse Size of Brain matters
much.

[Flavious]

Thanks, I see what you mean.